18 Mr Young on the Preparation of Poppy OIL 
or rancid, it will be considerably improved by a mixture of re- 
cent poppy oil. 
The oil expressed must remain for five or six weeks before it 
is used, that.it may deposit in a sediment a kind of milky sub- 
stance that is mixed with it. It must then be poured into ano- 
ther vessel, and this should not be perfectly closed at first, but 
the opening be covered with a linen cloth or a pricked bladder, 
that certain exhalations may pass ; nor should the. oil be imme- 
diately used after the process is finished, as it continues to im- 
prove for a considerable length of time. 
Holland was supplied with this oil for a considerable time from 
France. It was sold there under the name of olive oil, or mix- 
ed with it in considerable abundance ; and it is believed that a 
great proportion of the olive oil used in this country is mixed 
with poppy oil. 
The second drawn oils are of a deeper colour, and are appli- 
cable to all the purposes of the more common oils ; and artists 
give a preference to the finer sort of it as a drying oil. It pre- 
serves the colour of some kinds of paint better than the other 
drying oils, and is free from their disagreeable smell. 
Dr Cogan * states, that in the year 1799 the poppy was cul- 
tivated in Holland solely for its oil and oil cakes, which yielded 
a profit of about L. 8 Sterling per acre, after paying expences. 
The oil of the first quality at that time being valued at 5s. 6d. 
and the second at 5s. per gallon. But when it is considered 
that the poppy is proposed to be cultivated in this country for a 
more valuable purpose than for its oil only, the additional ex- 
pence of collecting the seeds, and expressing the oil, will bear 
but a small proportion to that incurred in Holland. For it ap- 
pears that there the expence amounts to more than half the va- 
lue of the whole crop. 
Estimated value of the produce of one acre, 
£50 lb. oil, cold drawn, at Is. 6d. - - L. 18 15 0 
1£5 lb. do. warm. at 6d. - - - 3 £ 6 
500 oil cakes, at 18s. per 100, - - - - 4 10 0 
L.£6 7 6 
The following account will give an idea of the proportion of 
oil which the seed contains, and the expence of pressing, &c. 
* Bath Pap&rSf vol. x. art. 28. 
